Saturday, November 19, 2016

A Safe and Special Place

Are you for goddamn kidding me? Seriously, are you kidding me:

This?

You'd think someone would have
told him that Broadway is like, full
of gays. I mean, was he lost?

So what's all this about? Why this. No time to click? No problem, I'll explain. Last night VP-elect Mike Pence went to see Hamilton, you know, the musical? You know, the one about some of American history's whitest, slave owning-iest founders performed by a super-diverse cast singing hip-hop? Yeah, I don't know what Pence was doing there either, but during the curtain call Brandon Dixon Victor, who plays Aaron Burr, took the opportunity to address the running mate of the guy most of the country didn't vote for:

"...and another thing..."

-Dixon, last night

"We welcome you and truly thank you for joining...We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, or children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us."

-Brandon Victor Dixon, very politely letting
Pence know that he scares the shit out of us

Yes. Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump responded with the Tweet you see above. The one that elicits the 'are you for goddamn kidding me.' Because for real, are you for goddamn kidding me? Camera's blazing? Are we supposed to be upset that the cast might have publicly shammed Pence for all the shameful things he's done and said over the years? And then the follow-up Tweet:

Um, In order: it is, no they weren't, he
sucks and they should absolutely not apologize.

The arts are going to have
a lot to work with.

'The Theater (sic) must always be a safe and special space...?' Safe. And special. Just...fuck you. Like, fuuuuck you. Sorry, but for real. The guy who just ran for, and electoral college-won the Presidency entirely on a platform of racism, misogyny and homophobia does not get to call out the cast for being rude to the guy who signed Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This is exactly what theatre and the arts as a whole are supposed to do: call bullshit on bullshit.

Yes of course the theatre (that's right, '-re') should be a safe space. It is a safe place. What's not feeling so safe right now for most of us is America's immediate future, say everything after January 20th.